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This past Summer I was probably spending too much time going through old magazine archives and looking for anything pedal-related. My main years of focus where 1962-1972, as the later half of that decade saw the birth of guitar pedals, and specifically FUZZ, as we know it today.
And as it turns out, I was very lucky in tracking down some really important ads and articles that have helped clear up much of the history we all thought we knew for the past couple decades. Additionally, I was able to discover some pedals that were completely new (to me), which then lead to even more digging and late-night research.
The article below, which was found in the June 1969 edition of The Music Trades magazine, highlights a "new" fuzz out of Saskatchewan, Canada called the "Buzz-A-Tone". As you can imagine, I immediately had to find out everything I could about this thing, and see if I could track one down for myself (spoiler alert: I didn't). So here we go! This is everything I have found, so far, about the Verlage Buzz-A-Tone fuzz...
Verlage was an amp brand out of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, owned and operated by Ken Verlage. From what I could find, it looks like they were around for nearly a decade; from approximately 1965-1975 (give or take a few years).
The amps are somewhat rare, but I have been able to find photos of enough of them that seem to prove, if nothing else, how long they were actually in business.
I did find one description of an early amp head that supposedly has the Buzz-A-Tone circuit built-in, but the controls don't really match up, so I cannot confirm if this is true.
So after a bit of onlining, I was able to find photos of two (somewhat) surviving units. Sadly, both have been modded; one has a weird 2nd footswitch installed, the output cable is missing, and I'm not sure what else could be wrong but it doesn't seem quite right. The other one has been completely gutted! At some point along its path, someone decided they hated fuzz and took out their anger and ignorance on an innocent vintage pedal just trying to live its life.
But that all being said, we at least have a couple photos to share so you can get an idea of what these looked like. And you may recognize that they appear a bit different than the one in that article above.
*About that; one thing I caught at the end was the line, "A special lead guitar model is also available." So are we seeing both models here? I'm honestly not sure at all, but maybe YOU have one just sitting in your closet and would like to message me so we can figure this out??? 😁
Now that article being from 1969 should be an indication of when these were available. But something I have learned from reading The Music Trades, is that when gear makes it into an issue, it's because they are working with a distributor. And oftentimes a new brand will be toiling away for a year or two (sometimes more) before deciding they need a little help to expand.
So it begs the question, "When did the Verlage Buzz-A-Tone actually get released?"
And maybe we never would have gotten closer to that answer, but just earlier today I was going through old newspaper archives and came across an ad from the Brandon Sun, out of Manitoba, Canada, from August of 1967; it was for Verlage Amplifiers, and right there about half-way down, was a clear mention of the Buzz-A-Tone! (well "Buzz Tone", which might actually make sense. Look back at that 1969 article and the face of that pedal appears to have the word "Verlage" above the footswitch, and then simply "Buzz Tone" below it. 🤔)
Now I don't personally know much about the pedal history of Canada. But I can't think of a single Canadian fuzz that came out before 1967. So could this be the very first (production) fuzz box from our neighbors to the north???
And if it was built in 1967 or earlier, what could the circuit be based off of? Unfortunately we have no gut shots to study, but it could easily be a
Maestro Fuzz-Tone or even a
Mosrite Fuzz-Rite. But to be honest, we will have no idea until we actually see inside one.
And just to be thorough, I should mention that one of the owners has described the tone as sounding "like a Fuzz-Rite", but again, who knows!?
Well, that's all I got for this one! If it wasn't clear above, I will ask you all now; if you have any more information on the history of Verlage Amps or Ken Verlage, please reach out.
If you own a Verlage Buzz-A-Tone definitely reach out! If nothing else I would love to see the inside of one so we can come back and edit this with more details and accuracy. Here is
my Email and Instagram please feel free to reach out with any additional bit of info you might have.
*And if you'd like a little more background on the amplifier side of Verlage, check out this link.
Thanks as always,
-ed
